Category: blogg

Hi, I’m Drew and welcome to Move EP, and I’d love to share with you why I do what I do.

As an Exercise Physiologist and Acupuncturist, I have a pretty unique outlook on Exercise, Health Nutrition and the power of the mind. I believe fully functioning human being needs a balance between 5 core elements to perform at your peak and enjoy an active and healthy Life. The 5 Cores include Strength, Cardio, Movement, Nutrition, and the Mind

When the 5 cores are in alignment then Longevity will occur, this is what I call playing the long game.

What is longevity?

Well to me it’s about being fully functional, in your mind, body, and spirit, so when we get live to 120 we have a body that works, an active mind, and the spirit to enjoy it. To me that’s what its all about

“I believe an exercise is a form of medicine that everyone can do, it’s my mission to connect each person to a Movement practice that nourishes, supports, and enhances their lifestyle.

I believe a movement practice is essential to living a long and healthy life, giving you the freedom to enjoy the things you love to do. Be it at work, on the sporting field, or at home.

To achieve this We use proven systems of exercise, nutrition, and mental development, to create a well-rounded, balanced program that gets you where you want to go.

We tailor our programs to your specific goals and needs and coach you in how to get results and keep them.

We don’t have a dogmatic approach to anything, we use what works, simple as that, and we only use principle based systems.

Principle based systems are programs that are created around governing ideas, concepts, and rules, that apply across all levels, from beginners to advanced.

The Principle of Metabolic tissue growth tells us that certain structures in the body, muscle, ligaments, tendons, all have unique metabolic rates and physiology, so our exercise programs take these into consideration. There are no quick fixes, short cuts, or super secret techniques accessible to a select few inner circle.

The programs we teach and the systems we use are available to everyone who is willing and able to commit to the process

The approach I take is not for everyone, and that’s ok, but if you are willing to put in the time, and effort, and consider yourself a student of the human experience then I’d love to hear from to see how I can help you

How Do We Coach

We coach you in the Move studios, in,

one – one session, where you get to work with Drew individually

small private groups, where you work on your own program, in a small group, with Drew coaching you

We love to give everyone the chance to come in and have a chat about what you like to do and why. From there we can start to develop a plan that suits your specific needs. If you have an established medical condition that’s ok, I specialize in working with people who have existing injuries, illness or chronic conditions and will work closely with your health professionals who are on your team.

Hi folks for this week’s random classes I will be running a Kettlebell Session, and a Core level 1 session.

Core Level 1 sessionDay Thursday 12 thTime: 12.30Intensity: on the chill’d side of things,,.,, you may leave feeling totally relaxed and a bit tallerHow Long: 50 minsDo I need to book: that would be nice…drop me a message to let me know you are coming alongSkill Level: if you can get on the floor, you can do it, great for beginners

KettleBell SessionDay: Friday 13thTime: 8.45 amIntensity: You will get sweaty and lift heavy stuff….there will be a 5-minute swing challengeHow Long: 50 minsHow many spots: Only space for 6 people for this oneSkill Level: If you know what a Turkish Get Up is you are good to go 🙂Cost: $20

Plese feel to reach out with any questions. As always with the random sessions, the vibe is going to be rather relaxed, you may laugh, and there’s a high chance of coffee post-session

Intelligence, Strength, Wisdom and Power – Where do they really come from?

I love this quote from the Tao…its one I always come back to and reflect on.

In today’s modern world folks are too busy trying to control things they have little control of, and fail to see the importance of self-mastery first.

They try to control other people

They try to control the world, jobs, politics

They try to control their family and friends

Realize, the only real control you have is over yourself

Having studied Traditional Chinese and Japanese Martial Arts a and Movement practices, including Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Jujitsu, Yoga and Zen Bhudist Mediation for over 20 years I feel I have a little appreciation of the journey toward true understanding of myself

I understand I still have a long way to go

One thing all these practices have in common is that they all take perseverance, dedication, practice and a willingness to put your ego aside.

It’s the journey that important

It’s the practice that gets you toward the top of the mountain

It’s working with great teacher

Being humble and open

A journey purely based on the aesthetics, the ripped body, for example, is what I call an Empty goal. Meaning that on its own won’t really bring you happiness that’s meaningful, there will be some transient happiness but it will fade quickly. It can be very useful as a stage in your growth and development, but should never be the only goal.

Should your journey happen to get you a rocking body, that will be with you through your practice and journey, almost as just a side effect of your practice then that’s pretty cool. But with or without the aesthetic goal, your practice continues. You may be able to rock that body when you are 25..but will you really care about having a 6 pack when you are 85?

I have seen an increase in the energetic, or Qi movement arts, which is really cool to see. When I started training in Tai Chi 20 years ago, its was very hard to find other people who even knew what it was, but know, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga, and meditation are becoming common practice, it’s fantastic to see.

Beware the teacher that done a weekend course and is all of a sudden the “Master”, “Guru”, “Expert” “Sifu”, I call bullshit on this, and it’s an inherent problem in western cultures of folks not willing to put in the study and work to really earn their title, or have the skill and expertise to teach and coach these incredibly deep and complex movement arts. The weekend certification is an empty Qualification, be it in any movement system, pilates yoga, kettlebells, weight lifting, Personal training, Qi Gong, whatever!

For those wishing to start to explore this aspect of the human condition the number one key thing to do is to search out a good teacher of whom you have a strong connection with. There are many branches of the tree, and the roots go down deep, explore until you find your own path, in this way, you will gain a deeper understanding of who you are, and where you are going

How’s that hamstring tightness going….is it really you hamstring, or is there another reason why you can’t touch your toes…

Having trouble getting dressed in the morning, that damn shoulder keeps grabbing….let us take a look at your shoulder mobility pattern and find out what’s happening

Can’t do a push-up….is it weak upper body muscles, a tight joint capsule, poor scapula stability, or is there something else happening. The push-up test will help us find out

Everyone thinks their core is on point, but I haven’t come across anytime who can nail the FMS anti-rotational core test first try yet….maybe you can, would love to see it

That’s exactly what Steve did

He wanted to get fit and avoid any injuries. As a Dad with two young kids and a job that doesn’t allow him to get to a gum regular he wanted a program he could do anywhere, with minimal equipment, and would take into consideration some old footy injuries

So we did an FMS which highlighted specific areas we need to work on

I then created a program based specifically on Steves results. A program aimed at his goals, designed for his body .

We spent some time going through the program, making some technique tweaks, and getting Steve comfortable with the exercises so he could get after it at home.

To keep the momentum going we agreed to a 6-week training cycle, so there’ll be a review with the FMS, and a new program to keep the fitness moving forward. This also allows us to make adjustments to each exercise.

To help him along I created a personal webpage for Steve, with all his exercises on the page with a video of each exercise, with little tips n tricks to get the most out of them. Steve has access to his webpage anytime he likes which is really cool as flexibility was important for Steve

Often when I’m working with folks one of the first things I teach, and one of the hardest things to get early on is finding “Neutral Spine”

It’s a little tricky because everyone has a slightly different spinal column shape, some folks have a larger lordosis (lower back curve), others may be more rounded in their upper back, Kyphotic

Finding “neutral” can be pretty challenging for people, especially if they haven’t really done it before. It takes practice, awareness and being shown how to find it.

Another reason folks find it tricky is due to the large variation of “core” exercises, and different approaches and methods. A quick look into the internet fitness jungle will rapidly confuse your brain and body.

There’s the pilates approach

The yoga system

Gymnastic versions

The Gray Cook FMS way od doing it

The Stu McGill method

Postural Restoration Institute like it a certain way

Of course, there is the wild west of gym/PT based versions

Ohh…and don’t forget uncle Freddy’s bulletproof core neutral version

everyone has an opinion, a method, system, and approach right!

Thing is, most of them are valid when applied at the right time, in the right context, with the right progressions ects

So at some point, we just need to start

So I like to start at the beginning, crazy right

And for the majority of folks, the beginning is learning how to find neutral spine. But why neutral?

Neutral spine is functional and safe

It’s where we organize the vertebral column correctly to allow all the muscles, nerves and blood supply to work.

It is the foundation of the most movement.

But we definitely need to learn how to get out of neutral, mainly because as humans we get about on two legs, you may know it as walking.

Walking requires a complex integration of the entire spinal column as it rotates around the joints to create torque movements

The rotation of walking is essential,

But before we learn to rotate, we need a sound base

This is why I like to start with neutral spine setting, it allows us to create a foundation to build upon.

The goal, however, will be to produce a spinal column that can essentially do four things

1. Stabilize in neutral – think heavy deadlift

2. Flex and extend – think to bend forward to pick up your child off the floor, and then straighten up

3. Laterally flex – Think to lean over to your side to give your partner a cuddle on the couch

4. Rotate -Think pretty much every functional movement pattern we do. walking, running, rolling over in bed, walking up stairs, riding a bike.

The end goal of any good “core” program should be to facilitate awesome spinal column movement in the four key areas mention above

it all starts with learning how to find spinal neutral

Then you need how to learn how to breathe….but that a post for another time

n the meantime here s a little video i put together to give you guys a bit of an idea on how to get into “Neutral Spine”, and how we connect the core to movement, particularly through your arms and legs.